The Australian Law Reform Commission is proposing a voluntary system where only games with a rating of MA15+ content or above would have to be classified by the Australian government. The Commission also suggested that all classification ratings for various forms of entertainment should become consistent across all forms of media. That is the conclusion of the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) Classification-Content Regulation and Convergent Media report that was commissioned late last year by Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland.

"We're not proposing changes to the class categories themselves, because there was significant opposition to the new categories we proposed," ALRC review chairman Terry Flew told GameSpot AU. "The existing categories have only been in place for a while, and it was agreed that the existing classification categories are well understood in the community, and that further research needed to be done before putting in new categories."

The report also recommends looking at international classification systems such as the ESRB in the US and PEGI in the UK to redevelop Australia's own classification scheme in the area of video games, as well as recommending that classification should become a national responsibility (currently Australian states and territories bear that responsibility).

The full report is available here. The gist of it is that the government should let industry self-regulate content below a certain ratings level because having the government do it would cost the general public money.

Rather than make the very small step they were nearly forced to do, they seem to be ready to do a couple more on their own. Good! As long as no censorship or ban are introduced, I honestly have 0 problem having the government do the age rating, especially if it sticks to only the ones that could potentially maybe theoretically be an issue.